◾️ And the Trees Still Stand

For eons, wood from the forest has been harvested to the brink of extinction to sustain humanity. Houses, furniture, wine barrels, bridges, boats, fences, industrial models for tools, machinery and cars, and even medicines were made to advance the aims of civilization. Add anything else that you like to the list.

After all this we cannot say if, on the whole, it was best for the planet. Can you appreciate that? Would you decide based on the weight of events as they impact the world or just you?

As humans, consumers, woodworkers, procreators, spiritual beings, and part of the cosmos, we owe a debt to the forests. There is barely one degree of separation between any of us and the oldest living things on earth.

By now, everyone on earth is aware of and think they are prepared to remedy the consequences of over-use. We must become better stewards of the planet. But it might sting a little.

Is it too late? No. I believe it is never too late to do the right thing. Yes, the essence of Dame Nature has been spoiled. It was taken without deposit and with no promise of return. Despite being broken and betrayed, the lady is waiting.

Through the ages, world literature satirically blamed forests for their predicament! Imagine that.

Man Entered the Forest

When the ax came into the forest, the trees said “the handle is one of us”...

Well, here’s the story:

The Woods and the Woodsman

A certain wood-chopper lost or broke
From his axe’s eye a bit of oak.

The forest must needs be somewhat spared
While such a loss was being repair’d.

Came the man at last, and humbly pray’d
That the woods would kindly lend to him
—A moderate loan
—a single limb,

Whereof might another helve* be made,
And his axe should elsewhere drive its trade.

O, the oaks and firs that then might stand,
A pride and a joy throughout the land,

For their ancientness and glorious charms!
The innocent Forest lent him arms;

But bitter indeed was her regret;
For the wretch, his axe new-helved and whet,

Did nought but his benefactress spoil
Of the finest trees that graced her soil;

And ceaselessly was she made to groan,
Doing penance for that fatal loan.

The forest’s lament:

Behold the world-stage and its actors,
Where benefits hurt benefactors!
—A weary theme, and full of pain;

For where’s the shade so cool and sweet,
Protecting strangers from the heat,

But might of such a wrong complain?
Alas! I vex myself in vain;

Ingratitude, do what I will,
Is sure to be the fashion still.

And, in spite of all that giving, the trees still stand.

Baadaye.

♥️ Shirley J

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The Woods and the Woodsman (Project Gutenberg’s A Hundred Fables of La Fontaine, by Jean de La Fontaine)

* helve: handle